MegaUpload, one of the largest file-sharing sites on the Internet, has been shut down by federal prosecutors in Virginia. The site’s founder Kim Dotcom and three others were arrested by the police in New Zealand at the request of US authorities. MegaVideo, the streaming site belonging to same company, and a total of 18 domains connected to the Mega company were seized and datacenters in three countries raided. An indictment unsealed today by the Department of Justice claims MegaUpload has caused the entertainment industries more than $500 million in lost revenue and generated $175 million “in criminal proceeds.”

Two corporations – Megaupload Limited and Vestor Limited – were indicted by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia on January 5th, 2012, and charged with “engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement.” Today, the authorities executed in excess of 20 search warrants in the United States and eight other countries and seized approximately $50 million in assets. A total of 18 Mega-related domains were seized including Megastuff.co, Megaworld.com, Megaclicks.co, Megastuff.info, Megaclicks.org, Megaworld.mobi, Megastuff.org, Megaclick.us, Mageclick.com, HDmegaporn.com, Megavkdeo.com, Megaupload.com, Megaupload.org, Megarotic.com, Megaclick.com, Megavideo.com, Megavideoclips.com and Megaporn.com.

Data centers in the Netherlands, Canada and Washington were raided. In an apparent reference to the latter, a source has just informed TorrentFreak that the FBI are currently detaining everyone at the ISP Cogent Communications’ headquarters in Washington DC, in connection with a Mega-related search warrant. In addition to MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom, another six alleged members of the Mega “conspiracy” were charged in the indictment, including residents of Germany, Slovakia, Turkey, Estonia and Netherlands. Owner Dotcom, Batato, Ortmann and van der Kolk were arrested today in Auckland, New Zealand, by authorities there. Bencko, Echternach and Nomm are still at large.

According to the Department of Justice, the individuals named above face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the charge of conspiracy to commit racketeering, five years in prison on the charge of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, 20 years in prison on the charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering and five years in prison on each of the substantive charges of criminal copyright infringement.

@well it looks like the dmca riia wants a cyberwar then let it be i be using the p2p emule network again and upload and seed on to that so lads download the p2p client set it up and i be uploading onto that site

APNewsBreak: US prosecutors shut down one of world’s largest file-sharing sites, Megaupload

McLEAN, Va. — One of the world’s largest file-sharing sites was shut down Thursday, and its founder and several company executives were charged with violating piracy laws, federal prosecutors said.

An indictment accuses Megaupload.com of costing copyright holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from pirated films and other content. The indictment was unsealed one day after websites including Wikipedia and Craigslist shut down in protest of two congressional proposals intended to thwart online piracy.

The Justice Department said in a statement said that Kim Dotcom, formerly known as Kim Schmitz, and three others were arrested Thursday in New Zealand at the request of U.S. officials. Two other defendants are at large.

Megaupload was unique not only because of its massive size and the volume of downloaded content, but also because it had high-profile support from celebrities, musicians and other content producers who are most often the victims of copyright infringement and piracy. Before the website was taken down, it contained endorsements from Kim Kardashian, Alicia Keys and Kanye West, among others.

The Hong Kong-based company listed Swizz Beatz, a musician who married Keys in 2010, as its CEO.

Before the site was taken down, it posted a statement saying allegations that it facilitated massive breaches of copyright laws were “grotesquely overblown.”

“The fact is that the vast majority of Mega’s Internet traffic is legitimate, and we are here to stay. If the content industry would like to take advantage of our popularity, we are happy to enter into a dialogue. We have some good ideas. Please get in touch,” the statement said.

A lawyer who represented the company in a lawsuit last year declined comment Thursday.

Megaupload is considered a “cyberlocker,” in which users can upload and transfer files that are too large to send by email. Such sites can have perfectly legitimate uses. But the Motion Picture Association of America, which has campaigned for a crackdown on piracy, estimated that the vast majority of content being shared on Megaupload was in violation of copyright laws.

The website allowed users to download films, TV shows, games, music and other content for free, but made money by charging subscriptions to people who wanted access to faster download speeds or extra content. The website also sold advertising.

The indictment was returned in the Eastern District of Virginia, which claimed jurisdiction in part because some of the alleged pirated materials were hosted on leased servers in Ashburn, Va.

Dotcom, a resident of both Hong Kong and New Zealand, and a dual citizen of Finland and Germany, made more than $42 million from the conspiracy in 2010 alone, according to the indictment.

Dotcom is founder, former CEO and current chief innovation officer of Megaupload.

OH meeenn, you can’t imagine the data, we all lose if Megaupload dies… There are rare stuff that you can only find in megaupload, OH! I’m going to commit suicide… I’m a true Megaupload/Megavideo upload since 2008

i dont fell safe saying im sad.
I actually used megaupload to share files with family, friends, and school mates. US messed up their own country now they wanna mess up the whole world(as if the recession they caused wasn’t enough of a mess up with their unapproved laws.)

All hail the Fourth Reich, Amerika!!
Keep handing more power to your federal government and you will soon realize what the phrase “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely” truly means. Same with every empire that has come and gone.lol

Stop go to cinema, stop go and buy music (destroy all agresive companies).It’s time to citizen boycot everywhere in world. America is fourth Reich. Fight for freedom. Copyright laws are old and must be changed. Stop voting for politicians who support this.

Although I understand many will be too selfish or cheap, there are millions of us and even if we all only donate $5 each, we can make sure they have the best legal defense. That not only helps them but ever other site owner afterwards and to a great agree, ourselves for we do not wish to see these sites all pulled down.

We NEED to donate and pay for their legal defence people!!!!
Everyone can afford $5!

50 million dollar money laundering what a trumped up charge how did he managed to launder that and if the case he was in new zeland what has american laws gotta do with pulling down the servers??look at duckload same thing no question asked the american are acting like the romans we can do anything attitude well one day the balance of power will tilt your way if you didnt spend 3 trillion dollars on buying arms on rebels,and isreal,and dafe nasa space research and fighting wars that doesnt concern you and yes 911 wasnt by bin laden it was the stage for the new world order by the mossad and the jews who also run the american goverment too late american you fight the islamic and your american people die off while they sit back and there population grow,think who is causing all the trouble in the world

wall street banker forcing normal american people out of there homes,while the jews are getting richer

i let you take your fight onto the next wave but i do know we are in a positiong where they control us

@dddd , i think that Multiupload is the only free service that is as fast as megaupload for their direct download links.
and there is also no waiting time , so i think that it is the best to replace megaupload for your shares .

I always wondered who owned the massive ‘Dotcom’ mansion out in Coatsville (place in New Zealand). It’s not too far from where I live. The best part about it was that they have life size realistic models of safari animals in their back yard. This whole thing is really bad news for us. If other sites like Mediafire, Filesonic and Wupload etc start going down the Internet is going to be a miserable place.

Revolution will eventually come… It has to.. People won’t accept this reign forever. Time of Judes behind the curtains is almost over… However, it’s sad it will cost many lives in process (in my opinion there will be war in US and Europe)

It’s the beginning of the end of the internet as we’ve known it folks. I’ve been online since 1995, and I’ve never seen so much pressure from the Zionist cabal to censor the free flow of information. They’re being exposed big time, and they’re afraid. If they can take down Megaupload without SOPA, imagine what they’ll do with it, and they’ll get it, one way or another, all the protesting in the world means nothing compared to cold hard cash, which these guys have infinite supplies of. If SOPA dosn’t happen this time, it will come under the guise of somethi ng more serious than piracy in a few months. Megaupload was always my favourite file host, super fast and huge daily download allowance for free users, they where clearly the most generous, it’s a very sad day indeed. And when they get all the file hosts and warez forums, they’ll come for the so called “conspiracy” related sites, under the guise of anti terrorism. These f**king a**holes will destroy the internet and turn it into just another corporate venture. Well.. We’ll find ways around their bulls**t no doubt. Viva La Tor..

could someone explain to me, why everyone is saying, that rapidshare is dead? i’m downloading 7 seasons of star trek voyager right now from rapidshare…1,5mb /s without any waiting time. seems pretty nice to me. where is the problem?

I’m going to hide in the attic and write a book. I’ll cover the windows and be real quiet, shut the lights off so the US Stoormtroopers don’t find me, I’m NOT WEARING A GOLD STAR OR AN AMERICAN FLAG!

Some years ago, there were agreements signed between American law enforcement and other allies for cooperation in out of country prosecution. It was supported by most as a way for kiddie diddlers and murderers to be caught when they flee the country. As always, the American government clouds over reality and pretends it’s for good when it’s simply for Americans to spread their police state globally (Freedom my arse!).

They had Canadian RCMP break in and arrest the Prince of Pot (Marc Emery) for selling seeds to Americans (just as countless other sites around teh world do. HIS operation was actually above board and he paid hundreds of thousands in legit taxes to the Canadian government, who knew of him but wouldn’t prosecute him.

Now the US abuses the allied cooperation to fuel their own War on Internet users, like the war on drugs, it’s futile, it breaches citizens national rights, will cost trillions and get them nowhere.

Then there’s all this BS about foregners yearning to live in America and how everyone is moving there? Get real, America is a toilet with more repression and government control than Nazi ruled Germany in 1939.

@ Freg. You’re right man, Rapidshare is awesome these days, they went through a greedy phase and pissed off millions of dedicated users, they lost all credibility on the warez scene and thus lost a serious amount of traffic, then they copped on and changed their ways, but most still can’t be bothered with them. Lately I download all the time from them as a free user, and I get my full speed, no waiting, and a huge download allowance. They’re awesome at the moment. No doubt the f**king FBI’s next target!!

fcukin ay man, megaupload was seriously the best file sharing site out there…it was quick, easy, free and the size of the file was insignificant, all these other sites like fileserve, filesonic, depositfiles, etc. make you wait 30-60 seconds before making you type in two words that even if you spell wrong will go through and even then theres a chance the file will stop mid download and then you have to start all over…it really is a shame that the government is so poised to stop people from enjoying movies and music, if it wasnt for sites like megaupload half the artists in the music industry regardless of genre wouldnt be listened to half as much as they are bc more than half of the fans arent willing or arent able to pay to download or buy cd’s…why waste time, money and effort on putting these people behind bars when they could be using the same resources to catch murderers, terrorists and violent criminals opposed to harmless people who only wanna help people enjoy the entertainment theyre looking to download…it truly is a sad sad day in the internet world, RIP megaupload you surely will be missed

I wouldn’t get too sad. Back in the 90′s we had to upload our mp3′s to multiple 10MB Geocities and Tripod accounts. That ended and Napster came along. Napster ended and and Winmx and Kazaa came along. Those ended and emule came along. Emule ended and Torrents came along. There is always something bigger and better ready to take the place of a fallen.

I hope at the very least this type of bulls**t will cause US and foreign country relations to terminate. That they can just tell NZ to “go arrest this guy for us” is ridiculous, Nazi Americas over-reaching power shown. When will other countries realize this place is the loss of freedom and the start of worldwide corruption and cut their ties? Seriously if I was .nz or any country having nothing to do with the US, I would start re-writing laws to separate any connection with them right now before things get real bad. Its like they think they can just march all over the world and every country is just a pot to piss in whenever they call for it.

The two political parties in the US have different supporters, hence different priorities in enforcement. The party now in the White House relies on Hollywood for campaign contributions, hence will emphasize enforcement of laws favorable to Hollywood. The other party would act on other matters. The next presidential and congressional election will determine everything.

well lads i be doing multupload it seems the fastest out there without recaptcha today

enterupload doesnt load page for me here in the u.k well all megaupload have to do is have a donations page to fight the crime slander and get back online the piracy bit shuitdown was aload of bull isnt the the dmca and copyright representive the one who are paid to pull down links well it looks like they were paid to do it and fialed in pulling down thel inks so why are people to paying to copyright there work and pull down links???

anyway multiupload it is i wont be the first or fastest uploading on here but at least i be relaibale have fun dude

well leave a message on my guest book on what sites you want me to upload to on my guestbook

Don’t hate the Americans. Hate the politics involved. There are many millions of us (Americans) that feel the way the rest of the world feels. We are rallying against sopa and pipa. The fight is not over yet. There are a lot of highly influential corporations against this government takeover. We are talking trillions of dollars in lost revenue. Stay the course and wait for the final outcome. It may not be as dismal as you project.

to conspire… i find it funny what our government will do just to get there way.
i bet these were false charges. the sight has been around for a long time and they do this now…
i dont trust our government. i dont trust them at all.
i cant wait to see them go down in flames. there injustice is enough.
they need to Learn that we put them them… its about time we pull them out. they Dont Deserve there spot.

We, AS AMERICANS, that loved MU share the same concerns that you do. Be careful not to ostracize us for we are the ones fighting on home turf and share to be hurt the most. We are constantly halting the passing of bills like SOPA and PIPA so that our freedoms are upheld. there has been countless people protesting in the dead of winter for this cause and countless petitions signed. I am certain you guys (anyone not in US) are super pissed, but trust us AMERICANS are pissed to. We stand to lose more than just a few websites. I was a active and avid user of Megaupload. I lost family photos and wedding videos that was associated with my account…..I never copyright infringed and i am appalled that the government has done the BS that they have done. Am i mad at Anonymous for doing what they did…..NO! Why should I be? They have stood up where the government knocks us American down at. Asian country (CHINA) has passed similar laws and taken steps similar to the US…but I never heard anyone say death to all asians…..Come on people, We stand strong together (all nations)….divided we crumple.

Lets be honest. Some will miss MU, some not. It’s a filehoster like rapidshare. Now rapidshare will raise again ? After all Linkhosters left RS ? Maybe. It’s not important. Important is, that MU made millions, and even if they go to jail for a short time, their life will be happy. Important is, also, that there are hundreds of other file hosters. MU was 1 % of all d/l’s. Someone had to bite the dust. The others are rubbing their hands. And if EVERY other filesharer is taken down, RS or the russians will survive. You give a sheep to the wolf, and the others are living….

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